The Importance of Timely Reviews
Performance reviews are important for a number of reasons. And employees come to expect their reviews to be completed on time. When performance reviews are allowed to slide beyond their due dates, employee morale can be negatively impacted.
Employees are affected because the message that essentially gets sent to them when reviews are not completed on time is that they are not respected and the manager and organization just don’t care about them enough to complete what they perceive to be a relatively simple task. If a review due date is missed by a day or two, that is one thing, but when they are missed by a number of days or weeks, that’s when the employee begins to become frustrated. This is especially true in the absence of communication about why the review may be late in coming.
Because compensation is often associated with the timing of the performance review and directly with the results of the review, there is also the perception that the organization is simply trying to delay the payment of any additional compensation. Or the employee may even begin to wonder about his/her job security. Is my review not being done because they’re going to fire me?! That is certainly a possible reaction.
Having a reminder and accountability system in place will help ensure that performance reviews are completed on time. Holding managers responsible for getting their reviews done on time is critical because of the potential impact on the employee and on the overall culture of the team or organization in general.
Don’t allow managers to slide on this very important responsibility. If they are allowed to be habitually late with their reviews, problems with employee morale and engagement are sure to follow.